Strategic Business Partner: Aligning People Strategies with Business Goals

302 Pages·2005·1.33 MB·English

by  Dana Gaines Robinson

Strategic
Business
Partner
Other books by the authors:
Performance Consulting
Moving from Training to Performance (coeditors)
Training for Impact
Zap The Gaps! (with Ken Blanchard)
Strategic
Business
Partner
ALIGNING PEOPLE STRATEGIES
WITH BUSINESS GOALS
by
Dana Gaines Robinson
James C. Robinson
Strategic Business Partner
Copyright © 2005 by Dana Gaines Robinson and James C. Robinson
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First Edition
Hardcover print edition ISBN 978-1-57675-283-8
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-57675-801-4
2008-1
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Contents
Preface vii–xii
Introduction: From Value Sapping to Value Adding
1–6
Part One:Concepts and a Model for
Strategic Business Partners 7–50
1. Key Concepts for Partnering Strategically 9–32
2. The SBP Model 33–50
Part Two: Building Client Partnerships 51–86
3. Identifying Clients and Developing Access 53–70
4. Gaining Credibility and Trust 71–86
v
vi CONTENTS
Part Three: Identifying and
Partnering on Strategic Projects 87–186
5. The Logic Used to Identify Strategic Opportunities 89–106
6. Reframe Requests to Identify Strategic Opportunities 107–136
7. Proactively Identify Strategic Opportunities 137–156
8. When the Client Says “Yes” 157–186
Part Four: Influencing Business
Strategies and Direction 187–242
9. Being at the Table 189–208
10. Making the SBP Role Real 209–242
Tools 243–252
References 253–256
Resources 257–268
Index 269–277
About the Authors 281–283
Preface
“Human Resources must become more integrated to the busi-
ness and add value to our organization.It is vital that each of
you work more as Strategic Business Partners.
I need you to be ‘at the table’with your customers.”
For the past decade, statements like this have been made
throughout Human Resource (HR) departments in numerous
organizations. Multiple journal articles, books, presentations,
and research studies have been published affirming the belief
that the HR function is key to business success. Consider a re-
cent study completed by Accenture in which business execu-
tives ranked the HR function as third,after sales and customer
service, as a function that makes a “very significant” contribu-
tion to a company’s bottom line (2002/2003, p. 12).
There is strong awareness that the HR function must be-
come more strategic and business-linked.Depending upon the
study you select, between 50 and 90 percent of HR functions
are making a transition in this direction. What are the results
to date? Unfortunately, results are on the whole disappointing.
In the same Accenture study, just 13 percent of the senior
vii
viii PREFACE
corporate executives indicated they were “very satisfied” with
overall performance of their HR organization (2002/2003, p.
16). One reason is that many HR functions still operate in a
primarily administrative and tactical manner.Edward Lawler III
and Susan Mohrman with the Center for Effective Organ-
izations at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles
state,“Given the amount of attention to the importance of HR
becoming a strategic partner, it is surprising that recent studies
have found relatively little change in its activities and structure”
(2003,p.5).
There are many reasons HR functions demonstrate only
modest movement toward a more strategic role. One of these
reasons is that strategic HR and business partner are not clearly
defined roles. These are esoteric terms that, at a conceptual
level, are highly appealing. We describe Strategic Business
Partners (SBPs) as people who work with management to de-
fine, align, and implement people initiatives to benefit the
business.When the partnership is optimized,SBPs contribute
to formation of business strategies and plans at the enterprise
level. But what is it that SBPs actually do day to day? How is
this different from what people do when working in other
HR, Learning, and Organization Development (OD) roles?
What actions are proven to result in earning the right to work
with leaders of an organization on business issues and future
direction? What are the value-added services HR business
partners provide once they are working side by side with an
organization’s leaders? These questions are answered in this
book.
Scope of Book
In 1995 we published our book, Performance Consulting. Since
then we have worked with thousands of HR, Learning, and
OD practitioners to fill the role of performance consultant.
One of the most frequent questions asked of us is, “How do
you get managers to want to work with you in this more
Preface ix
strategic manner?” The results of our quest to answer that
question are contained in this book.
We are behavioral in our approach. In our book,
Performance Consulting, we provide the reader with the how-to’s
of making that role real. In this book we use a similar how-to
approach focusing on the SBP role within an HR department.
We view the terms of being strategic and adding value as con-
ceptual; they are where the rubber meets the sky. In this book
we articulate instead where the rubber meets the road.We will
discuss the behaviors and actions needed to perform this role
in five areas:
• Clarify the difference between a tactical HR function and
one that is truly operating in a strategic manner.
• Provide a model of SBPs’ accountabilities.
• Discuss proven behavioral practices for building strategic
partnerships with clients as well as for partnering with
these clients on strategic projects.
• Clarify the added value an SBP brings when “at the table”
with an organization’s leaders.
• Provide actions that can and must be taken by HR func-
tions if they are to successfully embrace and support a
more strategic role within their organizations.
An important distinction to note about this book is that
it focuses on the role of the SBP. There are numerous books
that have described requirements for an HR function to op-
erate strategically—an important subject indeed. Although
the last chapter of this book does focus on the function and
its design to ensure support of the SBP role, the remaining
chapters are targeted to you as an individual and what you
need to do as an SBP. We aim to answer the question,
“What must you do day to day to work successfully as an
SBP?”